Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork: Dimensional Jewelry with Peyote Stitch (Beadweaving Master Class Series)

The chapters cover 2-D shapes, open shapes, 3-D shapes, art deco inspirations, ethnic inspirations, and contemporary inspirations. The directions are fabulous! A lot like the teaching format of Step-by-Step beads magazine, clearly illustrated with super close up photo's and easy to understand diagrams! Like the title says, it's all peyote stitch with "glue a cabochon or sew on a nailhead/rose montee" for the little stone embellishments. Unlike a lot of books that fill in pretty pictures, but they aren't covered or mentioned, you can make EVERYTHING you see in this book, no question about it. The really great thing is they're all taught component by component, how you mix/match and ultimately create something is totally up to you so you know your design will be a piece out of your own imagination when you're done! My personal favorites will mostly be the "open shapes". So much potential to link necklaces, frame beads, and make custom toggles! If you're a celtic nut, she covers a trefoil in her ethnic chapter that's AWESOME!! I'm so tired of the basic 101 bead books that recycle the same knowledge with different pictures. I hope this isn't the only "Beadweaving Master Class" that Lark Books chooses to publish. Bring on the challenges!! ;-)

What can I say? Diane Fitzgerald is wonderful, her instructions are clear and easy to follow and her designs are to die for. I found when looking thru her book I get inspired to come up with some of my own designs. The attached picture is the first thing I did after reading her book I was so inspired. The triangles necklace is reversible. If you are hesitant about buying this book and afraid you will waste your money. Believe me it is a wonderful investment. I turn to it all the time it is my go to book for shaped beadwork as is her Shaped Beadwork and Beyond. I even emailed Mrs. Fitzgerald and she emailed me back and answered by questions and told me my necklace was beautiful. I felt on the top of the world for my mentor to tell me that and to tell me that the retail value of it should be $300.00. I find though she is not the only one who writes these great books that will reply back. These people who write these books are wonderful about replying. Don't you just love them? I know I do.

Shaped Beadwork or "Shapping Beadwork" sets you up with the basic shapes both flat and 3 dimentional, both solid and open to create an uncountable number of combinations for designs and projects. Diane provides great pictures, diagrams and instructions to get you started making the basic shapes which are lovely alone or can be combined to create masterpieces. Her many projects are just a spring board for your own ideas if you want or need to stray from her amazing cross section of project offerings. Great color and design techniques are used to inspire from bright and bold to classic and pretty pieces. The use of buttons, nail heads and other findings and beads incorported in the projects add an extra kick that beautifully finishes off her bead work. This book is a must for any collection. There is something in here for the beginner to the advanced beader. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Book was excellent condition and I love it!!

I really am glad I bought this book. There are many great projects to bead, but also the book stimulates my creativity...lots of great ideas to incorporate into other designs. The instructions were a little difficult for me to understand at times, but I got some help from my teacher & some I figured out on my own. I've been playing at beading for about 3 years, seriously beading for about a year & a half. I've started at the beginning of the book & have mastered the open shapes. I'm looking forward to making the Celtic Trefoil. & some of the others for Christmas presents.

This is the hottest new topic for beadweaving and the author has done an amazing job. Her instructions are very clear and the patterns are based on the basic shapes she has you work through first. There are some gorgeous pieces of jewelry such as pendants, earrings and larger items too. By working through the first section, the beader has the potential to go on and explore this area beyond what is in the book which is the mark of a really great teaching book. In addition to the peyote stitch which is the main stitch, she also covers several other stitches too. The projects do not require a large outlay although I can actually use some of my Bali beads here too. My only complaint is the pale print job. The pictures and working diagrams are fine but the text like all the Lark books I've bought lately uses a print type which is too light and therefore hard to read. Recommended to all beaders whatever your level.

I loved the projects in this book from the first page. They are well organized and the step-by-step instructions and photographs are easy to follow. I don't usually feel super inventive and tend to want to make exactly what I see in a project, but these beads got my head spinning on possibilities that I could do with materials on hand -- especially a way to use buttons from my collections that I've been saving for the perfect project. I actually started reading the directions from the first page as though it was a novel. Great book. Highly recommend to anyone interested in peyote stitch and affordable beading. It also caused me to search for other books in this Master series. Am very much looking forward to more with similar quality.

I enjoyed Diane's last book (Zulu beadwork)so decided to order a copy of Shaped Beadwork from Amazon.com as Amazon.co.uk didn't seem to have any! I was totally amazed at the amount of work Diane put into this book. It's not only fantastic, but also quite unique! The diagrams are clear, the basic geometric shapes are truly fun to stitch, I have already made myself a pair of triangular earrings and they were easy to create! I hadn't used this technique before. Peyote wasn't one of my favourite stitches but I think it might turn into it!

Ce livre est un livre de base qui présente toutes les formes géométriques à l'aide de schémas explicites . Même en anglais, ce livre reste abordable et compréhensible. J'aurais néanmoins trouvé bien d'avoir des photos des formes prises de profil de façon à se rendre compte de l'épaisseur des formes réalisées.

Ich bin eine Handarbeitstante und bringe mir immer wieder neue Techniken bei. Meine Bücher zu Spitze, Sticken und Häkeln füllen etwa einen Meter Regal und jetzt holen die Perlenbücher auf ... In den letzten drei Jahren habe ich Perlen gekauft wo immer möglich, und jetzt könnte ich mit den Anleitungen dieses Buches loslegen, wenn es nicht besondere Perlen wären, die so ohne weiteres im ländlichen Bereich nicht zu bekommen sind. Und da kommt meine Kritik an diesem Buch, die trotzdem meinen Gesamteindruck nicht sehr trübt: Es fehlt die genaue Herstellerangabe mit der Farbnummer bei den Projekten, wobei es mir persönlich die nordafrikanisch inspirierten am meisten angetan haben. Ja, man kann es mit jeder beliebigen Farbe nachvollziehen, trotzdem wäre es eine Hilfe, die verwendeten Farbnummern der bekannten japanischen Hersteller aufzuführen, damit man sie im Internet bestellen kann. Ich stimme einer anderen Rezensentin zu, die Sache mit dem Aufkleben von sog. "nail heads" oder Cabochons tut mir im Zusammenhang mit Perlen weh. Und die Verwendung von "acrylic floor finish", um einige der mühsam gefädelten Teile zu versteifen. Nochmal Autsch. Aber dann kann ich nicht die Erfahrung und die Fertigkeiten von Diane Fitzgerald aufweisen. Vielleicht geht's technisch wirklich nicht anders. Am Mittwoch, den 12. Mai kam die Lieferung des Buches (zusammen mit weiteren Perlen-Titeln) und inzwischen habe ich dieses Buch dreimal gelesen. Zum Kauf des Buches animierte mich eine Rezension in der Zeitschrift "Perlen-Poesie". Die englische Sprache schreckt mich nicht, ich brauche sie tagtäglich im Beruf. Inzwischen gibt es auch eine deutsche Übersetzung. Wenn man schon ein bisschen mit Perlen im Peyote-Stich gearbeitet hat, kann man die Anleitungen verstehen. Für ganz blutige Anfänger ist das Buch eher nicht geeignet, aber trotzdem, es bleibt Spitze. Wow, und das geht mit Perlen?

きれいな形を作れるコツがたくさんのっていてよかった。 作図なども多くて、ちゃんと作れる。 シンプルで、面白いものを作りたい方にお勧め。

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter and she loves it.